US visa law keeps out foreign scientists

Universities and high-technology companies in the US are lobbying for changes in a new law that makes it more difficult for them to employ foreign scientists. They say that the law, which took effect last month, will trap visa applications in a bureaucratic quagmire and encourage disputes about wages.

The controversial law governs a visa category called H-1B, which allows highly trained professionals to work in the US for five or six years. In the past, obtaining H1-B visas was a relatively simple matter. Universities often arranged them for visiting professors or for foreign students who remained on campus to carry out research and teach for a few years after graduating, says Parker Coddington, an administrator at Harvard University. About 300 people work at Harvard under H-1B visas each year.